Something That Will Last Forever
by darkrunner
Summary: Mangaverse. Jou and Mai are bored out of their minds at a KaibaCorp event, until the speaker reminds Mai of a certain crazy Egyptian. It takes a while to forget being eaten alive by scarabs for 24 hours. Luckily, Jou's there to help her cope. JouMai
1. What a Rush

A/N: This was originally a gift to KagomeMiroku for catching my 3000th pageview on Devart. She requested a fic inspired by David Archuleta's "Crush". This fic has very little in common with the song, but instead, is somewhat related to a personal experience I thought of when I listened to the song. For being so unintended, I've grown rather fond of this fic.

Manga-verse because I don't feel like dealing with Doom. And because manga is so much cooler for having flesh-eating scarab bugs. (though it unfortunately lacks Jean-Claude Magnum's crazy stunt man.) So no awkward, "hey, I tried to kill you last month what's up?" They never had a falling out. It's post-Battle City. I'm also going with the idea that they've been seeing each other around at tournaments and such.

Disclaimer: If I owned Yuugiou, the age gap between Mai and Jou would be lessened by at least 4 years so I don't have to keep setting my fics three years after the series ends! (though, ironically, this fic does not involve such a timeskip)

* * *

He looked so handsome in the tuxedo.

Not that he didn't always look good. How did boys manage to pull off jeans and just-got-out-of bed hair so well? Mai spent more time than she'd ever admit to him getting as close to perfect as possible, but he could just throw on a t-shirt and run out the door. Maybe it was just easier to spot flaws in women. Guys always looked good.

It had absolutely nothing to do with how she felt about this _particular_ guy. Nope. Nu-uh. He was just barely an adult. For the love of ra, her liking him would be like _him_ being attracted to a 14-year old.

...okay, so Honda and Otogi fought over Shizuka like rabid dogs. That didn't count. _He_'d just barely entered manhood, and she was almost 8 long years older. 5 if he asked.

Though he did carry himself like someone older. She'd only asked about his life for the sake of small talk, and he'd answered as such. Other than that, his past was unknown to her. Used to be a punk, he'd said. Ran with the wrong crowd. Boy, that could be anything from a yankee to Visual Kei. She almost giggled at the thought of him all done up in chains and leather. It wasn't so bad, actually. But right now, she definitely preferred the tux.

* * *

Jounouchi glanced over his shoulder, then snapped his head back before Mai could see him blush. She looked _good_. He'd had similar reactions to her appearance before, but... damn. He would've whistled if he wasn't supposed to be paying attention to Kaiba Corp's head of Research and Development. It was just like Kaiba to throw a party for his new duel disk. He couldn't just release it like a normal CEO. No, he had to drag all of Japan's top duelists and then some to the building so they could be forced to socialize. Jounouchi adjusted his tie. Socialize in formal wear no less, since this was the biggest shindig Kaiba had thrown since Battle City.

Jounouchi hated socializing. Even right now was torture, and all he had to do was pretend to pay attention. He'd give half his deck for someone to talk to. Yuugi was on his left, starting raptly at their esteemed speaker. Of course Yuugi would find the long-winded lecture interesting--or have the decency to pretend to find it interestind. Ra only knew where Bakura went off to, and between awe of the King of Games and not wanting to risk insulting Jounouchi, rest of the crowd was steering clear of them. Clear being about 4 feet, which was considerable with the number of people.

Jounouchi sighed and tried to make the words coming out of the guy's mouth seem interesting. He was talking about _dueling_!

The most boring dueling Jounouchi had heard in his life. It was one long stream of technical specifications, stutters, and awkward pauses. Resigning himself to his fate, Jounouchi stared at the unfortunately dull man on stage.

* * *

Jounouchi glanced around again. Mai imagined how bored he was. Heck, she was bored, and she was willing to come ALONE. What on earth ever possessed her to show up at one of these stupid social things without a date, she would never know. It was just a release of a duel disk. ...at Kaiba's mansion. With an invitation that specifically told her she could bring a guest. A year ago, she wouldn't have been caught dead at one something like this without a man on her arm. ...of course, a year ago, she wouldn't have been invited in the first place, having just got out of dealing on cruise ships. But it was the principle of the thing.

She shook her head. Her mind was wandering again. But, geez, how hard was it to make a card game based on ancient magical games INTERESTING? Or at least tolerable! Mai wondered how horrible his punishment would be when Kaiba got wind of this. This man was not meant to be a public speaker. What Mai wouldn't give for someone to talk to right now.

And, on cue, Jounouchi fidgeted again. Mai glanced around. No one was paying attention to anyone in the crowd. In fact, most of them were staring at the speaker. Huh. Mai took a couple steps forward, but no one noticed, let alone cared. She wove through the crowd to the small space around the two young duelists. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she wondered what was possessing her to do this, but then she looked up at Jounouchi and the voice shut up.

She touched his arm lightly. He didn't jump, but he twitched and spun around too quickly to pretend not to have been startled.

"Hey," he said, his bored expression changing to a grin when he saw who it was. "You're stuck here, too?"

She smirked back. "You looked like you could use someone to talk to. Hey, Yuugi!" She whispered a quick greeting to the king of games, who had raised his head her way. He nodded, smiling, and turned his attention back to the speaker. Jounouchi scoffed and nodded at the stage.

"I don't know about talking. I'm pretty entertained as it is." Jounouchi tried to make himself look interested, and failed miserably. He sighed. "Ah, damn, this is so boring. You think Kaiba'd at least let us sit for it."

"Probably wants to make sure we don't fall asleep," Mai joked. Jounouchi nearly laughed out loud, which, while entertaining, would not have been the wisest descision.

"So what're you doing here?" Jounouchi asked eventually when their silent laughter died down.

"Why wouldn't I be here?" she shrugged. Jounouchi gauged her expression, and tried to figure out which 'here' she meant. She noticed him staring at her, and he jumped.

"H-here at the party or here with me?" he gave in and asked flat out. She looked at him coyly, but he turned so she wouldn't catch him blushing.

"Both," she smiled, amused by his reaction, and honestly wanting to be with him. He nodded, looking into the distance. If she didn't know him better, she'd think he was lost in thought. He didn't say anything after that, so she focused back on the prototype duel disk and contented herself with at least being in someone else's company.

"You look nice, by the way," Jounouchi whispered. Mai was caught between accepting the compliment or playing with him some more. The latter was more fun. She leaned close to him so she could whisper back.

"You said something to the same effect when we met on the boat to Duelist Kingdom." Where, in contrast to the floor-length evening gown, she'd been wearing a corset and a mini-skirt.

"Erm," he stammered. "Really? I don't remember that..." Mai shot him a dark glare.

"I mean, not that you didn't!" he rushed, raising his hands as though to block her angry look. "You..." his shoulders slumped, and he lowered his hands. "Ah... you, you're just messing with me, aren't you?" he accused as the corners of her mouth twitched.

"Oh, come on," she laughed. "It was funny."

"Hmph," he scoffed, sticking his hands in his pockets. "Last time I pay you a compliment."

"Oh, alright, I'm sorry," she conceded, taking hold of his arm, coaxing it out of the pocket, as though it had something to do with his mood.

"You mean it, or do you just want me to keep saying nice stuff?" he raised an eyebrow. That was interesting. She'd never seen him do that before. It was quite charming.

"I mean it," she promised. He grinned, and let her take his arm.

"You really do look nice," he tried again.

"You're one to talk," she came back. "I didn't know you cleaned up so well." He stood straighter, taking pride in the compliment.

"Really?" he asked, glancing--and he was amazed to realize this--DOWN at her. She was standing right next to him--literally; she was holding his arm--He was taller than her by at least a couple inches, and she was certainly wearing heels.

"Would I lie to you?"

"..." Jounouchi wasn't about to answer that. Mai rolled her eyes.

"Okay, would I lie to make you feel better?"

"Ah. No."

"There we go," she laughed, looking back up at the guy on stage to see if things had gotten any better. The man was pulling an actual duel disk out of a case now, instead of reading off of his never-ending list of technical specs. "Ooh, hey, they're actually going to do something."

"...works just like a normal duel disk!" They managed to catch, now that they were actually paying attention. "But, if I take this..." He pulled a cord out of the bottom of the duel disk The man had stopped stuttering so much--or maybe now that they were with each other, they were less distracted.

There was a small square piece attached to the end of the cord, and this he stuck to the back of his neck. The cord wound behind his head, down his left arm, and into the duel disk. He activated it, and summoned a monster. The crowd laughed when a Kaibaman stepped onto the stage. Jounouchi let out a particularly smug chuckle.

"Ladies and gentlemen, when you entered, you were each given a number to remember." He turned the duel disk on and fiddled with the lifepoint counter. Mai remember hearing something about the counters being able to project random numbers for things like coin tosses and dice rolls now. "With the new randomizer feature, I'm going to select the duelist who will get to test the new disk."

"Oh great," Jounouchi muttered, sliding his arm out of Mai's grip and digging through his pockets. Her arm stayed curled in the same position for a moment, not wanting to let go of his.

"Number 23!" The man called dramatically. Jounouchi sighed.

"Aw, I was fifty-something." He looked at Mai, who was staring blankly at the paper in her hand.

"Don't tell me," Jounouchi guessed, looking at her paper and seeing the exact number. "Lucky! Go on, get up there!"

"I don't want to..." she started lamely, but Jounouchi gave her a gentle push, and she went ahead.

* * *

A/N: ... _yankee to Visual Kei. She almost giggled at the thought of him all done up in chains and leather..._ - That's an inside joke that I couldn't resist. Yankee was roughly was Jounouchi actually was--a gang member. Visual Kei/J-Rock is a reference to a cosplay _I_ did of Jounouchi.

I suppose it could have used more work... but... I don't think it'll help it as a fic. Just provide you with useless details of how incredibly boring the party is.

Two more chapters, both written, so updates will be quick. I'd love to hear guesses as to what will happen, since for once, I've got the whole thing done already.


	2. Is There More?

A/N: Sorry for taking so long! This chapter was written three weeks ago, but it was only half as long, and needed more to it. I realized that I'd mentioned Bakura in the first chapter and not used him, so he got to show up and get some lines.

Also, this now takes place after the Ceremonial Duel. Otherwise Yuugi's a touch out of character.

* * *

Mai worked her way through the crowd, with less effort than she expected. It was a pretty clear shot to the front of the stage. They had been closer than she'd thought.

The speaker met her at the steps to the stage, taking her hand. She lifted her head to look at him and their eyes met. Mai froze. He tried to conceal an eager smirk, but failed. His expression was so familiar that she almost jumped. She had never seen him before, and yet, there was something unmistakable in the way he looked at her. Something that made her want to run off the stage. But his hand hung out in front of her, and she felt the eyes of the entire dueling community on her back. With little choice, Mai accepted his hand politely, and he greeted her.

"Kujaku Mai!" he smiled, the exact opposite of the dull man she had seen before. "Welcome! Congratulations on ranking in the Battle City tournament."

"T-thanks," she accepted, wishing everyone would stop reminding her of the damn Battle City tournament. He offered the new duel disk, and, pushing thoughts of demon egyptians out of her head, she took it.

Sliding it on, she was able to examine it. Instead of the trademark white-and-blue Kaiba Corp standard models, this one was black and grey. The hard corners were now rounded, adding to the size reduction. It was much thinner, and a good deal lighter. She lifted her arm a few times, getting used to the weight.

"Do you like it?" he asked as he pulled the new mysterious cord out of her duel disk. He seemed friendly enough now, and Mai tried to shake the feeling she'd had.

"It's lighter," she replied "But... what's this new thing for?" He attached the cord to her neck, as he had done for himself. It wasn't anything bad. It couldn't be anything bad. Kaiba would never test anything bad.

"You'll see when the duel starts," he smirked, and Mai felt her feeling rush bacl. What kind of function would need to be attached to her neck? Some kind of new hologram? Lifepoint counter? Virtual-reality?

"Ready?" He called from across the stage. She nodded, not feeling ready at all. Mai slid a card off of the deck he'd provided, and summoned it. A red-haired woman with a katana appeared on the field, in a fighting stance. Getsu Fuhma. An appropriate enough moster for her.

Ignoring the anxiety it was inducing, the duel disk really was an improvement. The hologram was sharper, more realistic looking. Mai braced herself for whatever the new thing was, and called the end of her turn. The man nodded, and drew his own card. Kaibaman was still on the field, so Mai wasn't sure if they were going to play a whole duel, or just enough to demonstrate the effect.

"I summon Vorse Raider!" he called dramatically. Mai rolled her eyes. If there was one thing she'd had enough of with dueling, it was all this posturing. It was a card game. "Now, attack!" The Raider charged forward.

"1900 to 1700," the man explained as the Vorse Raider raised its weapon. "Only 200 lifepoints shouldn't be too bad to start." The Vorse Raider brought the bladed weapon down on the girl. She tried to block with her sword, but it was forced out of the way, and the Raider struck its chest armor, which shattered. She fell down, and disappeared, destroyed.

Mai felt nothing for maybe a second. Then the patch on the back of her neck started to burn, and the wind was knocked out of her as she felt the force of the Raider on her monster. Her legs weakened as memories of blood and headless devils filled her mind. She pressed her hand to her chest, and imaginary phantom wounds burned with pain. She tried her hardest not to fall down on stage, in front of the whole dueling community, in front of Jounouchi.

* * *

Jounouchi was paying attention to the stage for the first time that evening when Bakura finally came back.

"Jounouchi-kun, did you see--?" Bakura stopped when he noticed Jounouchi staring at the stage.

"Uh-huh," Yuugi replied. Jounouchi pulled his attention away from Mai and looked at his friends on either side of him.

"What?" he asked. "What'd you guys say?"

"Nothing. How's the duel going?" Bakura asked.

"Nothing happened so far," Jounouchi replied. "They're about to start."

Bakura and Yuugi exchanged a look. Jounouchi looked at the both of them again.

"Seriously, guys, what're you talking about?"

"Jounouchi-kun..." Bakura hesitated. "Is there... ah... anything between you and Mai-san?"

"What?!" Jounouchi spluttered, feeling his face burn again. "What makes you-- where did that come from?"

"It's... kind of obvious, Jounouchi-kun," Yuugi added.

"W-what?" Jounouchi stammered. "Ah... You're one to talk!" Jounouchi accused, pointing at Yuugi, trying to change the subject. Yuugi spluttered as well.

"Anyway," Bakura said hastitly, overtop of Yuugi's protests. "Have you said anything to her yet?"

"What're you talking about?" Jounouchi refused to look at them, fixing his eyes back on the stage. "There's nothing to say."

"Jounouchi-kun, I was the only there when Mai-san woke up after Yuugi's duel," Bakura pointed. Jounouchi blinked. He'd forgotten that.

"So?" Jounouchi shrugged, still trying, and failing, to hide his obvious feelings.

"Okay," Bakura sighed. "Fine. You don't have feelings for her. But if you DID... well, she didn't say it, but I'd bet my deck that she likes you too."

"Hmph," Jounouchi scoffed.

"He's right, Jounouchi-kun," Yuugi added. Jounouchi said nothing, focusing back on the duel.

Mai didn't share his feelings... did she? They were just friends. Aquaintances. She was only talking to him tonight because she was bored. She could never like HIM. She was always making fun of him... playing jokes, like that day on the blimp. Why had she done that? He had thought she was _dead_! That wasn't even a joke anymore. He'd been terrified. He wanted to ask her why she'd made him go through that.

"Hey, Bakura," Jounouchi muttered. He should just ask _her_. But he was too afraid. "Since you were there... why'd she play that joke on me? After she woke up?"

"She... wanted to see how worried you were," Bakura thought a moment on the rest of the message. "And something about... if her duel had 'been a fluke'."

Jounouchi continued looking at Bakura for a moment before he realized he was staring and turned back at the stage. A fluke? She wanted to see if he really meant it when he stood up to Ra? So did she know he liked her and wanted to be sure... or think he DIDN'T like her and wanted to be sure...? Ah, he had no idea.

Before he could continue to confuse himself trying to analyze Mai's thought process, something caught his eye. Mai and the speaker had both summoned monsters. The man's attacked, and destroyed hers. She pressed her hand to her chest, and a red flag went up in Jounouchi's head.

* * *

"Well?" the man called from across stage, proud of his sadistic invention. His familiar expression was clear as day to her now. In her mind, Malik grinned while she writhed in pain, a vise crushing her skull. Malik smiled while he picked his own head off of the dueling field. Malik laughed while she was electrocuted half to death. This man looking at her, like her pain was the most pleasurable thing he could imagine.

Mai shuddered. She wanted to bolt off the stage as fast as she could. But the majority of the dueling community and Jounouchi... Mai took a deep breath, stood up straight, and forced a smile onto her face.

"Very nice!" she complimented, lying through her teeth. She'd only have one chance to get out of this without drawing notice. "But I think I've had enough. Why don't you let someone else try it?"

There was a brief pause, and she could see in his eyes that he wanted to keep going with HER. But she was glaring at him, not letting this continue. He gave in, and nodded.

"Very well," and he crossed the stage to take the duel disk from her. "Kujaku Mai, duelists!" There was a bit of polite applause. Mai ripped the thing off of her neck, and thrust the duel disk at the man before striding off stage and back into the dark crowd.

Jounouchi was waiting when she reached him, a nagging feeling that something had gone horribly wrong. He pushed the feeling aside, smiling for her.

"Hey, how was it?" Jounouchi asked, but she kept walking, not even looking at him. Jounouchi glanced at Yuugi and Bakura, both who shrugged. He looked at the stage, and back to Mai. Realizing his nagging feeling was correct, Jounouchi followed her through the crowd.

* * *

A/N: Seriously, fast update next time! Within a week, I promise! If I don't... um... someone gets a requestfic! (though if it's polar, I'd probably do a request anyway)


	3. Something That Will Last Forever

A/N: I was THRILLED that I finally set a fic in manga-verse so I could skip Doom and just focus on Malik's duel. And then I realized HE TELLS HER ABOUT THE DREAM IN THE MANGA. D: Which totally screwed up my ending. So I had to rewrite it, which I did in just two days to make up for the awful time between the first and second chapters.

* * *

Mai pushed her way through the people, concentrating on holding herself together for just a second longer. _Just keep it together for this one step. And now another. Keep calm, you can HANDLE this, it's just a duel disk, nothing happened, no one's screwing with your mind, you're fine, you're fine..._

She finally broke through the back of the crowd and bolted for the door. The sounds of the crowd died away. Her heels clacked on the floor as she crossed the entranceway. Jounouchi ran after her, the noise of the crowd audible as he opened and closed the door. Mai didn't bother to turn around, continuing outside.

As soon as she felt the cool air on her face and heard the door latch behind her, she let out a long, shuddering sigh, and leaned against the wall. Everything was okay. It wasn't Malik. It wasn't. No one was trying to kill her.

"Mai?" Jounouchi poked his head around the door. She stood up straight, and forced a smile on her face. Stay cool. Don't let him see you messed up.

"Yeah?" She kept it short, not knowing how long she could keep this up.

"You alright?" He shut the door behind him, coming over to her. She nodded, turning away. Oh damn it all, _why_ did she feel like crying? Why now?

He touched her arm, as she had done to him before. Where he had jumped from surprise, she flinched, afraid. He stared when she pulled away from him.

"Mai, what's wrong?" Jounouchi asked, trying to circle around to face her. She turned towards the wall, not sure why she wanted to hide from him so much.

"Nothing," she lied. Hesitant, Jounouchi reached out his hand to put on her shoulder. She braced herself, and didn't pull away from him this time, but still trembled at the touch.

"What happened?" he pressed again, concerned.

"Nothing," she whispered, trying to make it true. "Nothing, nothing happened, nothing..."

"Something went wrong up there, Mai, I know it."

"No... just wanted some air," she said, now looking at the door. No, she could not go back in there. Not yet, she was still afraid that man would press her into dueling again. She moved away from Jounouchi, his hand sliding off her shoulder.

Jounouchi grasped her wrist so she wouldn't leave. "Mai. Talk to me."

"There's nothing to talk about." Jounouchi heard her lie echo with his own. "I'm fine..." He took a hesitant step towards her. Mai let him. "I'm..." She let it hang, not finishing the sentence, and making a noise like she wanted to cry but wouldn't let herself.

"No, dammit, I'm not fine!" she cried, surprising Jounouchi. "It wasn't fair! I didn't do anything to him, and screwed with my head for FUN. Why did I have to be the one--" Her hand was shaking, and Jounouchi didn't know what to do.

"Why did ANYONE have to fight him? We weren't even in his way for getting at Yuugi, he just wanted to KILL!" Jounouchi realized with a start that she wasn't talking about the dueling man tonight, but Malik. The red flag that went up when she almost fell on stage--was because she'd done the same thing in her duel with Malik. Jounouchi's hand tighted around hers.

"And now I'm still screwed up from it, but I can't... no one can do anything about it, and that idiot in there wants to make that kind of a duel normal, and I just... I--" her voice broke, and she stopped, trying not to make a sound as she finally started to cry. She flipped her handbag open with one hand and started to rummage through it.

Jounouchi let go of her hand, and approached her. Head down, she dug through her purse. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a plain white handkerchief, which he offered to her.

"I still owe you this," he offered. Her head still down, Mai stared at it for a moment, and then let out a strangled laugh.

"I'm such an idiot," she shook her head, taking it from him. "When I lost to Yuugi, I didn't want you to know I was crying. But when I gave you the handkerchief, obviously you knew. Now I don't want you to see me crying, but... I can't help it... and I know I shouldn't care--" She glanced to the side, still not wanting to show her face to him.

"Hey." Jounouchi put his hand on her shoulder. Mai looked at him, nearly laughed again. His eyes were closed. "I'm not looking."

She just looked at him a moment. "Oh, Jounouchi." Mai turned to him, resting her forehead on his shoulder, clutching his arm. He didn't move when, at last, she let the tears fall. "Why did it have to be us? Why did we have to duel Malik?"

"It's alright," he comforted. "You're okay now, Mai."

"When I dueled him, I thought I was going to die," she said, shaking. "I was so afraid of it. He stabbed me, tortured me, he threatened me with Ra, and all I could think was 'I don't want to die'. But then, he did something after the duel, and I wanted to die. I was in so much pain for so long, I actually wanted it. I can't just get up and walk away from that and everything's okay."

Jounouchi drew closer, memories of Malik's duel reawakening his overwhelming desire to protect her. Neither spoke for several minutes, her crying slowing as time passed.

"I wanted to stop it," Jonouchi gritted his teeth. "I wanted to fight him right there, but he did something and... then you were gone. I tried to get you back, Mai, I did! It wasn't a fluke when I got up in front of Ra. And now you know how worried I was. I dueled Malik, and I almost--"

"Almost died!" she accused, raising her head, tears shining. "You! I can't believe you! Look at me!"

Jounouchi opened his eyes as instructed, faltering under her angry glare.

"And you've been talking to Bakura!" She added. "I didn't tell you those things, Jounouchi--"

"Well... what about me almost dying?" he challenged. "I didn't tell you _that_!"

"Why not?" she shot back. "I have every right to know! You were trying to help me!"

"I didn't want to...!" He started to shout, but broke off. Sighing, he looked away, muttered, "Didn't want to... hold it over you or anything,"

"Instead of what? Me wallowing in self-pity?" she asked incredulously, anger rising at him not telling her something so important. "I've been all on my own, here, thinking no one could understand about Malik... and then I find out, not only do you understand, not only did you duel him, you did it willingly, _risking your life_--!" Her mouth kept moving as she tried to form words, but couldn't verbalize her frustration. "And you didn't TELL ME."

"What was I supposed to say?" he asked. "'Hey Mai, I DIED dueling Malik.' That's a great conversation starter."

"You idiot!" She yelled, voice breaking. "Do you have any idea how much I've needed someone who understands?" She continued in a rush, trying to get everything out before she broke down again. "And you've been here all this time, but I didn't know, and you didn't say anything. I couldn't talk to you about it, but I wanted to, I _like_ you Jounouchi! But I just--I couldn't put you through that, though all my pain, not if you didn't know--"

"Mai." He held up a hand, cutting her off. Taking her shoulders, he looked her straight in the eye and asked. "What did you say?"

"I..." She realized what had come out of her mouth. Her eyes widedned; she hadn't meant to say anything like that. "Oh. I..."

"Did... you mean it?" Jounouchi asked, not sure how to feel. Mai kept looking at him, nodded once.

"You?" she asked, and he blushed, answering it.

"Erm..." Well. Jounouchi's hands fell from her shoulders. He was surprised to find it made no difference that she had already stated HER feelings--he was still nervous. "Y-yeah."

"Well then," she breathed, smiling for the first time since they had been inside. He felt dizzy. Was this happening? Did she really--? Yes! Yes, she did! He could've laughed. Yes!

They just stood there, revaling in the fact that they both had feelings for the other. Amazed silence turned into awkward silence as the moments passed, and they looked at each other, neither knowing what to say. They both started to speak at the same time.

"So--" Jounouchi started.

"Should--?" Mai asked at the same time. They both stopped.

"Ah!" Jounouchi motioned for her to continue. "Go ahead." Mai had to keep herself from laughing. Oh, this would be an interesting relationship.

"Should we go back in?"

"Like hell," Jounouchi said, pulling a disgusted face. "And if Kaiba has something to say about him, he can duel us." Mai smirked.

"Just give him one of those new duel disks and he'll shut up," she laughed, but somewhat forced. The idea of the pain-inflicting duel disk was still too inhumane for her to joke about. She rubbed the back of her neck, trying to dispel the phantom burning pain.

"So what did happen in there?" Jounouchi asked, as they walked away. Mai lowered her hand from her neck, grasped his hand instead.

"Nothi--" she started. Jounouchi looked at her quizically when she stopped. Mai shook her head, and concluded, "Apparently Malik's extra-crazy side got reincarnated as KaibaCorp's most boring R&D staffer."  
-----


End file.
